In 2022, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown visited Chillicothe to meet with local veterans and staff at the nearby VA hospital. As part of a set of recommendations aimed at improving the VA, the Chillicothe hospital was targeted.
This Asset and Infrastructure Reviewor AIR, the commission’s report, is the result of the Trump administration’s efforts to overhaul the nation’s largest health care system. Among the changesthe commission proposed closing the more than 80-year-old hospital and replacing it with a novel but smaller facility a half-hour away in Circleville. Full-service facilities in Dayton and Cincinnati would take on some of the responsibilities, and the agency could also tap private hospitals in the area to contribute.
Veterans and employees — many of whom met both criteria at the same time — argued that the commission misunderstood the Chillicothe VA’s ability to provide services to veterans in rural southern Ohio and that privatizing health care would lead to worse health outcomes.
In June of this year, members of the U.S. Senate Veterans Affairs Committee refused to approve a nomination to implement the AIR Commission report, effectively killing the idea. Many of them cited the impact on services in rural areas of the country. Both Senator Brown and his then-colleague, Ohio Republican U.S. Senator Rob Portman signed the decision.
But one group of veterans was furious about it.
“To say it’s disappointing is an understatement,” Darin Selnick of Concerned Veterans for America said in press release.
“In short,” he continued, “this decision is shortsighted and will harm veterans because they will be trapped in a broken and outdated system that was not built to meet their needs.”
The organization describes itself as providing “people-empowering solutions, based on the principles of freedom, to solve the problems Americans face.” It describes how veterans know better than most “what happens when freedom and the free market are interfered with.”
Concerned Veterans for America is a subgroup of the Koch family’s nonprofit political organization, Americans for Prosperity.
In the current U.S. Senate race in Ohio, Concerned Veterans for America Action has endorsed Republican Bernie Moreno, and Moreno’s campaign is coordination of door-knocking activities with the group. According to the CVA Action website, they were outside Summit County agitation on the weekend.
For people who mobilized to save the VA hospital in Chillicothe, Moreno’s association with the organization is a slap in the face.
Moreno’s offer for veterans
Moreno’s campaign speeches tend to emphasize issues like inflation, the economy and immigration, rather than veterans’ issues. But when he stopped in Chillicothe early last month, he combined them all.
Spotting a handful of veterans in the crowd, he asked for a show of hands for those who had served.
“When you go to the doctor, do you have a co-pay? Do you have a deductible? Do you have to make an appointment? Yes?” he asked. “No, if you’re illegal — if you’re an illegal immigrant, this country doesn’t require appointments, go straight to the emergency room.”
“This is for the people who broke into our country,” Moreno continued. “We have 35,000 homeless veterans in America today — 35,000 people like these two gentlemen and others who have served this nation. For 1/100th of what we spent last year caring for illegal immigrants, we could build every one of them a home.”
Putting aside the political rhetoric of presenting immigration and veterans care as some kind of compromise, Moreno’s math is remarkably sanguine. At a May hearing, the Republican-controlled U.S. House Budget Committee held a hearing on “The Cost of the Border Crisis,” discussing a report that estimated illegal immigration would cost the U.S. $150.7 billion in 2023.
One hundredth of that amount is just over $1.5 billion, which, spread across 35,000 veterans, is about $43,000 to build a home.
Significantly, another organization, analyzing data from 2022, found that undocumented workers paid $96.7 billion in taxesand this sum could enhance by an additional $40 billion if universal work permits were introduced.
The Ohio Capital Journal reached out to Moreno’s campaign and Concerned Veterans for America. Neither organization responded.
View from Chillicothe
No matter what appeals she makes, Jessica Fee believes Moreno’s association with Concerned Veterans for America is inexcusable.
“I think it’s absolutely disgraceful and disgusting to veterans in rural America,” she said.
Fee is an organizer with the American Federal Government Employees, a union representing workers at the Chillicothe VA. She said that without the VA hospital in Chillicothe, some veterans would be left without care. Transferring patients to private providers would only burden a rural health care system that is struggling to keep up, and the path to other facilities is long and potentially daunting for older patients or family members, she said.
Fee pointed to her parents as an example. After the accident, her dad was taken to OSU Hospital in Columbus, but her mom hadn’t been behind the wheel in years. Her dad insisted she go to rehab at the Chillicothe VA.
“And I said, you know, dad, if we can’t let you in, how about Dayton or Cincinnati, VA? And he said, I spent over 50 years with your mother. I’m not going to be somewhere she can’t let me in,” Fee said.
“And that’s the reality,” she added. “He’s a veteran that we’re taking care of.”
Thomas Yeager is a retired United States Air Force Senior Staff Sergeant and subsequently worked at the Chillicothe VA for approximately nine years as the facility’s IT Manager.
He acknowledged that the AIR Commission report was right — VA facilities, by and immense, are pretty ancient and could probably do with some modernization. But he also expressed deep concerns about closing the hospital with only the promise of a novel clinic in Circleville.
“I was very afraid they would say, OK, we’ll close this and then build a new facility that will never be built,” he said.
Yeager argued that many VA employees are veterans and such a move would be a disaster for the local economy.
“Closing this facility would be a double whammy for the veterans who work there,” he explained. “You know, they would lose their jobs and also their access to local health care.”
He argued that while Republican politicians have sided with the military, they often fall compact when it comes to meeting the needs of veterans. Yeager pointed to ongoing efforts to privatize VA care — the AIR Commission is just the latest example.
Lisa Parker, who leads the Jackson County Democratic Party and is an Army reserve officer, argued that by focusing on treating veterans, VA facilities have niche expertise that private health systems simply can’t replicate.
“There are illnesses, injuries and mental health issues unique to veterans that the general public doesn’t see, doesn’t understand, and doctors often misdiagnose or ignore,” she said.
Like Fee, she described how her family members have noticed a difference: Her uncle and husband developed chronic health problems from Agent Orange exposure, and her son struggles with a traumatic brain injury and ongoing health issues related to burn wounds from his time in Iraq.
She added that veterans who have survived sexual violence or are struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may find it easier to talk to someone at the VA.
“Veterans are going to open up to other veterans,” she said. “They’re not going to talk to anyone outside because they’ve just shut down. Don’t you understand? They’ve just shut down.”
As for Concerned Veterans for America’s work with Moreno, Parker argued that they did not understand rural America.
“Yes, it’s easy to say, let’s get rid of it and modernize it, because we have 15 hospitals in our cities,” she said. “We have two hospital systems, Adena and Holzer, that cover southeastern Ohio.”
Fee was even more dismissive.
“I think if it’s someone who needs to knock on your door,” she said. “But I hope they’re really honest in their messaging and say we want to close your local VA hospital, we don’t think veterans need care in rural America, just those in the cities.”
